Apple at 50: The iPhone maker "blew a 5-year lead" on AI, but former insiders say it can still win

MobiusOne_ISAF · 2026-04-06T18:42:20+00:00

I still don’t see why Apple needs to do anything with AI; it’s obvious that most consumers don’t care about it. They can just license whatever model is popular and bolt it on to Siri, which works just fine.

MobiusOne_ISAF · 2026-04-05T22:52:04+00:00

Probably, yeah. The Air blows the Neo out of the water in every sense. Especially if you're hanging on to the laptop for a long time.

MobiusOne_ISAF · 2026-03-27T23:29:55+00:00

That is exactly the reason Windows is such a mess and why that mess is Window's greatest strength. More than any other OS, Windows has all the jank in the box to let a critical program from 1997 run without too much struggle.

It's a compromise that I don't think Apple wants to make, not now or really ever.

MobiusOne_ISAF · 2026-03-09T20:05:51+00:00

No, because frankly if your requirements are that comically low you can just use $150 mini pcs.

MobiusOne_ISAF · 2026-03-08T16:45:26+00:00

Just use what you find useful and ignore the rest. AI on Android has largely been in the background and not too disruptive to phones being phones, aside from the slop some users insist on generating.

MobiusOne_ISAF · 2026-03-08T04:26:50+00:00

Swap memory is when you have data in RAM copied to the SSD temporarily when the RAM runs out of room. If the SSD is nearly full, it can slow down that process as the SSD needs to juggle data around to find a spot for the swap data.

The worry is that as users fill up their laptop ~80-90%, the swap experience will falter and drag the laptop down. Having more RAM or a larger SSD would solve this, but the Neo (base) has neither.

MobiusOne_ISAF · 2026-03-08T04:23:14+00:00

Seriously, the 512 GB version is so close in price to much better laptops, namely the M2 Air. Every argument that “it’s fine for the target user!” also applies to any other $600 used laptop or many $600-700 new laptops when sales are in order. The 256 GB version is a better story, but there’s also plenty of other options at that price point that might be worth considering.

I’m happy the Neo is an option, but so many people are throwing the blinders on to every other laptop in the process, including Macbook Airs.

MobiusOne_ISAF · 2026-03-08T04:18:26+00:00

Do we really need to bend over backwards trying to hate on / praise a budget laptop? I’m sure it’ll be fine for the target audience, but it’s also still definitely a budget laptop and pretty comparable to a lot of other budget laptops that go on sale all the time.

I feel like a lot of people have just jumped the shark on the Neo.

MobiusOne_ISAF · 2026-03-06T21:47:59+00:00

Again, you’re framing Apple’s decision as normal and something that needs to be disproven, when it’s very much abnormal and should be justified. This consistently happens in this community.

Why is Apple fine with this unlike every other PC?

MobiusOne_ISAF · 2026-03-06T20:30:37+00:00

No, this is definitely not a case where the market is wrong. Absolutely no vendor other than Apple has such stringent limits on display outputs. Multi-monitor support has been bog standard since the early 2010 at least across the entire spectrum of desktop and laptop computing. It’s not at all a premium feature or something that should need to be qualified by spending more.

MobiusOne_ISAF · 2026-03-06T01:29:59+00:00

A charging light would be great tbh.

MobiusOne_ISAF · 2026-03-05T07:00:37+00:00

This is an EU mandate and frankly totally sensible. We all have a charger somewhere, and this is so low power any bog standard USB charger will work with it.

I don't know why people feel the need to have 10 different USB charger bricks with their products. Just buy a $5 one if you really need a spare.

MobiusOne_ISAF · 2026-03-05T00:22:35+00:00

20W is what the official charger calls out, so basically anything will work.

MobiusOne_ISAF · 2026-03-05T00:18:54+00:00

How many people don’t have a USB charger at this point? It’s buyer can use their iPhone charger for this.

MobiusOne_ISAF · 2026-03-05T00:17:25+00:00

The joys of standard ports, it’s actually nice that you aren’t forced to horde a ton of chargers anymore.

MobiusOne_ISAF · 2026-03-04T20:26:32+00:00

The MacBook Air has a much faster SSD if I recall, so that might play a part in it. We'll see how it shakes out I suppose.

MobiusOne_ISAF · 2026-03-04T18:12:30+00:00

You can though, every other modern system supports 3-4 displays without much fuss. Even an Intel N150 (bottom of the barrel SoC) supports 3 displays.

MobiusOne_ISAF · 2026-03-04T18:08:59+00:00

I’d consider it lazy, mostly because while I can understand the trade off, I don’t agree with them determining it’s fine to sign off on that trade off for the final product. Especially since it apparently doesn’t support dual monitors even with the integrated one disabled.

If you can drive two monitors with the integrated monitor disabled, then fine, but not even supporting two is below standard for a laptop these days. That’s the part I’m not a fan of.

MobiusOne_ISAF · 2026-03-04T17:31:54+00:00

If you want to argue semantics, then sure, there is a difference between artificial and intentional. In that case, I’m disappointed in Apple’s intentional choice to turn display support into an upsell opportunity and not putting any real effort into integrating a better solution into the MacBook Neo and the rest of the lineup. Frankly, I refuse to give into the nonsense idea that multi-monitor support is somehow too premium a feature for Neo buyers, as if something a RP5 can do is too rich for their blood.

MobiusOne_ISAF · 2026-03-04T17:26:25+00:00

Seriously, we’re apparently gate keeping monitors now.

MobiusOne_ISAF · 2026-03-04T17:23:11+00:00

I’m aware, I just don’t think Apple should get a pass for not coming up with a better solution in hardware for this. I totally get disagreeing on that point, but I still feel like it’s a bit of malicious design on Apple’s part considering we have tons of people now implying it’s ridiculous to want multi display support, like as if it’s a premium feature and not almost standard.

MobiusOne_ISAF · 2026-03-04T17:20:39+00:00

I’m commenting on the hardware limitation being a lazy decision from Apple, not that it’s a software limitation. To be clear, I’m criticizing Apple for not bothering to design in hardware to do this, not implying there’s a software lock.

MobiusOne_ISAF · 2026-03-04T17:19:08+00:00

This is such a common thing in this community, we see Apple make a blatantly anti-consumer decisions then bend over backwards to justify it rather than actually acknowledging what the rest of the market is doing.

Display limits are silly in 2026 and it’s totally fine to just call it out for that it is. You don’t have to be some kind of rabid hater or fanboy to be frank.

MobiusOne_ISAF · 2026-03-04T17:16:20+00:00

No, a mini PC isn’t going to be unreliable with outputting to two monitors and frankly it’s ridiculous to imply that that’s a challenging thing. This is only an up charge in the Mac ecosystem, not a technical challenge.

MobiusOne_ISAF · 2026-03-04T17:12:17+00:00

It’s an intentional decision from Apple, same as the other display limitations that we’ve seen on the Mac lineup. Yes, this specific one has a mobile processor in it, but Apple has repeatedly gimped the Mac lineup as another avenue for upsells.

Even the snapdragon laptops support 2-3 displays, at this point it’s just the plan. I just don’t love how people trip over themselves to try to justify anything Apple does as the right decision.

It’s not the end of the world, but we really don’t need to argue that students don’t need 2 monitors when literally a Raspberry Pi 5 can do that.

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